Josh Hazlewood becomes 11th Australian to pick 250 Test wickets

Glenn McGrath. Shane Warne. Dennis Lillee. Brett Lee. Mitchell Johnson. Craig McDermott. Jason Gillespie. Nathan Lyon. Mitchell Starc. Pat Cummins. 

And now Josh Hazlewood.

On Wednesday (January 17th) at the Adelaide Oval, Hazlewood joined an illustrious list as he became the eleventh Australian bowler (ninth pacer) to scale the 250-wickets mark in Test cricket. 

After Australia opted to bowl, Hazlewood started the day off with five wicketless overs but struck on his sixth to get to the revered landmark. The right-armer castled Alick Athanaze, who, in a moment to forget, saw his stumps get shattered after shouldering arms to a ball that came back in sharply. 

With the breakthrough, Hazlewood became the fourth and final member of the current Aussie quartet — himself, Cummins, Starc and Lyon — to get to 250 Test wickets. Incidentally, Cummins also got to the landmark this very summer, albeit against Pakistan, after dismissing Mohammad Rizwan at MCG. 

It’s been some journey for Hazlewood, who began his international career in 2010 as a 19-year-old, but only debuted in Test cricket four years later, in 2014, after suffering a bout of injuries during his developmental stage. The lanky right-armer started his career off with a five-fer against India at the Gabba and, really, hasn’t looked back since. 

With the wicket of Athanaze, Hazlewood has also extended a very interesting streak. The 33-year-old has now picked up at least one wicket in each of his last 18 Test innings, dating back to the Perth encounter against West Indies all the way back in November 2022.